''Doña Bárbara (Lady Bárbara)'' is a novel by
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
n author
Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. In 1948, he became the first freely elected President of Venezuela, president in Venezuela's history. He was removed from ...
, first published in 1929. It was described in 1974 as "possibly the most widely known Latin American novel".
[Shaw, Donald, "Gallegos' Revision of Doña Bárbara 1929-30, ''Hispanic Review'' 42(3), Summer 1974, p265]
This
regionalist novel deals with the confrontation between civilization and the barbaric aspects of the rural environment and its inhabitants. It is written in the third person and mixes vernacular language and regionalisms with literary narrative, making the main conflict more obvious and at the same time more tangible. This novel is considered a masterpiece of
Venezuelan literature
Venezuelan literature is the literature written by Venezuelans or in Venezuela, ranging from Indigenous peoples in Venezuela, indigenous Pre-Columbian, pre-Hispanic myths to Oral literature, oral or written works in Spanish language, Spanish or oth ...
and a classic in
Latin American literature
Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and the indigenous languages of Latin America. Latin American literature rose to particular pro ...
. It establishes a psychological study of the people of the Venezuelan plains: victims of unfortunate situations, but at the same time strong and courageous.
Publication
Gallegos took his first trip into the
Llanos
The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, ...
of
Apure
Apure State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida (state), Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas (state), Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations ...
, central Venezuela at Easter 1927, in order to gather material for the book he was writing,
[ during the course of which he stayed on a ranch near ]San Fernando de Apure
San Fernando de Apure () is a city in Apure State in Venezuela. The population of the municipality area is 165,135 (2011 census). The 18th century exports included heron feathers (for pens) and animal hides.
The “Maria Nieves” bridge across ...
.[ His previous book, ''La Trepadora'', had been well received.][Englekirk, John E., "Doña Bárbara, Legend of the Llano", ''Hispania'', 31(3), August 1948, pp259-270] During his stay, he gathered many details of the local idiom, scenery, and daily life, and was inspired by the real people he encountered; Doña Bárbara herself is derived at least in part from the local landowner Doña Pancha.[ Of the fifty place names mentioned, more than half are easily identifiable in the area, and many more can be associated with existing sites with a little more effort.][
Within a month of returning to ]Caracas
Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
, the first pages of the resulting novel, ''La Coronela'', were being printed.[ However, dissatisfied with the title and the first printed pages, Gallegos called the printing off.][ Gallegos then took his wife to ]Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, Italy, for an operation, and returned to the manuscript, making substantial revisions and coming up with a better title: ''Doña Bárbara''.[ The novel was then first published in ]Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Spain, in February 1929, by Spanish publisher Editorial Araluce.[''Doña Bárbara'']
Barcelona: Editorial Araluce, 1929. 350 pages. p xxxvii It was substantially revised for its January 1930 second edition,[ with Gallegos adding five chapters amounting to 20,000 words, re-ordering chapters, and making various other changes. Gallegos later made further changes, until the author was finally satisfied with his work in 1954.
]
Reception
The novel was published to worldwide acclaim, and despite Gallegos' research in the Llanos taking just 8 days,[ those familiar with the Venezuelan Llanos were almost without exception convinced of its authenticity, convinced Gallegos was very familiar with them, if not born there.][
]
Historical context
In the 1920s, Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
was under the dictatorial regime of Juan Vicente Gómez. His rule saw wealth from oil discovered in the early twentieth century, and he used it to develop modern infrastructure and end the era of caudillismo, fully and completely uniting the country for the first time. However his rule was also brutal and corrupt.
Plot summary
Santos Luzardo, a graduate lawyer of the Central University of Venezuela
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
, returns to his father's land in the plains of Apure
Apure State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida (state), Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas (state), Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations ...
to sell the land but desists when he discovers that it is controlled by a despotic woman, Doña Bárbara, also known as the men's devourer; it is said that she uses seduction and pacts with demonic spirits to satisfy her whims and achieve power.
Santos Luzardo meets his cousin Lorenzo Barquero and discovers that he was a victim of the femme fatale, who left him bankrupt and a daughter, Marisela, whom she abandoned and who became quickly a vagrant. Lorenzo lives in poverty in a miserable house consumed by his own constant drunkenness.
Doña Bárbara falls in love with Santos Luzardo and, through an internal struggle, comes to abandon her evil ways. Luzardo, however, is charmed by Marisela, no longer living in abandonment and taken under Luzardo's care.
The novel ends with the "defeat" of Doña Bárbara, who is able to obtain neither the land nor Luzardo's heart, and finally departs to an unknown location.
Characters
*Santos Luzardo: represents civilization and progress. He is an advanced plainsman and, at the same time, a graduate lawyer of the Central University of Venezuela
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
. Luzardo is a man of great psychological depth and essentially good.
*Doña Bárbara Guaimarán: representing barbarism, is Luzardo's antithesis; she is arbitrary, violent, manipulative, cunning and whimsical. However, in her there is not an absolute absence of feelings, which are intensely awakened by Santos Luzardo. Her contradictory manners reflect the wild behavior of her environment. Her behaviour is a reaction to the trauma she suffered in her childhood, victim of high levels of abuse.
*Marisela: represents good raw material that civilization can mold. Born from a loveless union she is rescued from a degraded condition by Luzardo.
*Lorenzo Barquero: Orphan whose future was destroyed by misfortune and vice.
* Míster Danger: represents the contempt foreigners harbor toward Venezuelans. He is Doña Bárbara's accomplice.
*Juan Primito: represents superstition and the pagan beliefs of the plainsmen.
Adaptations
* ''Doña Barbara'' (1943 film)
* ''Doña Barbara'' (1967 TV series)
* ''Doña Bárbara'', 1967 opera by Caroline Lloyd with a libretto by Isaac Chocrón and orchestrations by Hershy Kay
* ''Doña Barbara'' (1975 TV series)
* ''Doña Barbara'' (1998 film)
* ''Doña Barbara'' (2008 TV series)
* ''La Doña'' (2016 TV series)
References
Bibliography
* Englekirk, John E., "Doña Bárbara, Legend of the Llano", ''Hispania'', 31(3), August 1948, pp259–270
* Shaw, Donald, "Gallegos' Revision of Doña Bárbara 1929-30, ''Hispanic Review'' 42(3), Summer 1974, pp265–278
External links
Full text of '
at HathiTrust Digital Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dona Barbara
1929 novels
Venezuelan novels
Novels set in Venezuela
Apure
Works about Venezuela
Culture of Venezuela
Fictional Venezuelan people
Venezuelan novels adapted into films
Novels by Rómulo Gallegos